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Mon, 5/7/2018, 2PM (CT) on 90.1FM. POSSIBLE TOPICS: TX Runoffs, Jade Helm Hysteria was fueled by Russians, NRA Helped Promote Russian Sniper Rifle, The government took $41,000 from this Texan at a Houston airport six months ago, Genealogy sites are Wild West of privacy, How many calories are in that pizza, Uber’s Self-Driving Car Just Killed Somebody. Now What, What Is Populism, More. SUPPORT KPFT! GUESTS: Open Forum [AUDIO/VIDEO] @KPFTHouston

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield. ~ “In Front of Your Nose”, London Tribune (22 March 1946) (George Orwell: ‘In Front of Your Nose’) (Cited from https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell) First published: Tribune. — GB, London. — March 22, 1946. Reprinted — ‘The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell’. — 1968.

A former director of the CIA and NSA said Wednesday that hysteria in Texas over a 2015 U.S. military training exercise called Jade Helm was fueled by Russians wanting to dominate “the information space,” and that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott‘s decision to send the Texas State Guard to monitor the operation gave them proof of the power of such misinformation campaigns.

Michael Hayden, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe podcast, chalked up peoples’ fear over Jade Helm 15 to “Russian bots and the American alt-right media [that] convinced many Texans [Jade Helm] was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents.”

“At that point, I’m figuring the Russians are saying, ‘We can go big time,’” Hayden said of Abbott’s response. “At that point, I think they made the decision, ‘We’re going to play in the electoral process.’”

Jade Helm 15 was a planned military training exercise that became a fascination of conspiracy theorists before it even began. The exercise, which spanned several states, began in Texas in Bastrop County in 2015 and was described by federal officials as routine. But some conspiracy theorists speculated that the exercise was a covert effort to institute martial law. Hayden was not CIA director at this time.

In late 2016, the US Army released a report noting that the Russian military… was undergoing a transformation and becoming a more potent battlefield threat to American forces. One troublesome development identified by the report’s authors was the increased proficiency of Russian snipers… One reason for this was the Russian military’s recent adoption of the ORSIS T-5000, a relatively new Russian-made firearm that the report called “one of the most capable bolt action sniper rifles in the world…which can be accurate at a distance of 2,000 yards—and these Russian rifles were showing up in Iraq and Ukraine. That is, this weapon posed a threat to US troops and those of its allies. Yet the National Rifle Association—which boasts it is identified with American patriotism—has helped promote Moscow-based ORSIS and its sniper rifle.

In December 2015, as has been previously reported, the NRA sent a high-level delegation to Russia. The group included Peter Brownell, then the first vice president of the NRA, David Keene, a past president, Joe Gregory, a top NRA donor, and David Clarke, then the sheriff of Milwaukee County, who would become a top surrogate for Donald Trump.

…The trip was at least partially subsidized by a curious Russian gun-rights organization called the Right to Bear Arms that has been associated with two Russians, Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin, who for years had been forging connections with conservative organizations and gun aficionados in the United States.

(Torshin—a director of the Russian central bank, a former senator, and a close ally of Putin—has been accused of having ties to Russian organized crime, an allegation he has denied. During the 2016 campaign, Torshin and Butina tried to connect with Trump campaign officials.)

While in Russia, members of the NRA delegation met with Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister, who was sanctioned by the Obama administration the previous year in retaliation for Putin’s invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Rogozin was a hardliner who led the ultra-right party Rodina, and part of his government portfolio was of particular interest to the NRA representatives: the arms industry. …

… As the National Interest reported in December, “The Russian involvement in Syria and Ukraine has provided a wealth of experience to the Russian military. One of the hallmarks of these engagements is the continued use of sniper tactics. As a result, the modern Russian sniper has evolved far beyond the relatively primitive technology used during the Cold War. Most notably, significant attention has been given to sniper systems that have the ability to penetrate body armor.” With the ORSIS T-5000, this article noted, the Russian military has “a formidable ability to defeat body armor at long ranges.”

… The NRA has been under fire for its Russian links. The outfit has refused to provide Congress with complete information about funding it receives from overseas, including Russia. McClatchy has reported the FBI is investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the NRA to help Trump win the presidency. (The NRA was among the biggest pro-Trump spenders in the 2016 election.) And the ORIS trip is another link between the NRA and Russia. The NRA did not respond to a request to explain whether the organization had any qualms about plugging a Russian weapon of concern to the US military.

… [Customs and Border Protection ] (CBP) took the money because [she] had not declared that she was taking more than $10,000 out of the country — a technical requirement that her lawyers say is not well-publicized or easy to comply with.

But six months after her money was taken, Nwaorie has not been charged with a crime, and federal prosecutors decided not to bother with trying to seize her property through the courts. Yet Customs and Border Protection is still refusing to return the money unless she signs a so-called “hold harmless” agreement, promising never to sue the agency over the incident and agreeing to reimburse the government for “costs incurred in the enforcement of any part of this agreement,” the document says.

On Thursday, the Institute for Justice filed a class-action lawsuit against the agency on Nwaorie’s behalf, demanding that CBP return her money without forcing her to sign any written agreement. They’re also asking a federal court in Houston to void all such agreements that might have been signed by others trying to get seized property back.

“We’re representing hundreds or thousands of people all over the country who have had this sort of thing happen to them,” said Dan Alban, one of the attorneys litigating the case. “They were entitled to get their property back … and instead, CBP sent them this letter demanding that they waive all rights to sue and hold [the government] harmless, and if they violate the agreement, pay all the attorney’s fees. …

The lawsuit comes at a time when more voices across the political spectrum are speaking out against civil forfeiture, especially in Texas. Law enforcement officials say the ability to seize property before charging someone with a crime is crucial for carrying out investigations; critics say it strips people of basic constitutional rights and that it helps police departments and prosecutors pad their budgets.

… President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are more supportive of forfeiture. Last summer, Trump reinstated a controversial federal program that lets local police hand over an asset forfeiture case to a federal agency and then split the proceeds. Local police like to do this because it’s a lot easier to seize property under federal law than it is under many state laws. …

… According to data the Institute for Justice obtained from the federal government, CBP conducted at least 125,583 seizures across the country in 2016, including 278 at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport … In many cases, no one fights the seizure … and the agency can automatically keep the property through what’s known as “administrative forfeiture.”

“So what that shows is that if you contest these forfeitures, which most people don’t because they can’t afford to, in 50 percent of the cases, the U.S. attorney’s office is going to return your money,” Smith said.

The problem is… that doesn’t happen right away.

… the Institute for Justice is asking the courts to declare that demanding people sign such agreements to get their property back is unconstitutional.

Genealogy sites aren’t just useful for researching your family tree … [O]ne platform helped solve a four-decade old cold case in the Golden State. Now, privacy experts say everyone should be aware of what information they give away with their DNA.

The Golden State Killer case baffled police for decades. But the man believed to have murdered at least 12 people and raped 50 women across California between 1976 and 1986 was finally captured. The alleged killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, was arrested on Tuesday by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. It was done with the help of two pieces of DNA evidence discarded at the scene of the crime and a small, independent genealogy site….

… [GEDMatch’s privacy policy states people should provide real names for registration, and warns against identity theft. “We try to strike a balance between these conflicting realities and the need to share information with other users,” it says. “In the end, if you require absolute privacy and security, we must ask that you don’t upload your data to GEDmatch.

… The FBI’s use of genealogy sites is only the beginning, Murphy says. The latest case involving GEDMatch is “a wake-up call” to rethink our relationship with these technologies—in the same way people are re-examining their relationship with Facebook

“We’ve been warning people about this for years,” says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “When you upload your DNA to a company like GEDMatch, you don’t have federal privacy protections under HIPPA.” The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 restricts who is allowed to access medical information, but this only applies to health-care providers, health-care clearinghouses and health plans.

People who don’t contribute their DNA to sites may also be affected, says Kayte Spector-Bagdady, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School. The Golden State Killer suspect, for example, didn’t contribute his own DNA. “He was smart enough to avoid that,” she says. “GEDMatch even captures third and fourth cousins. There’s no way to control what your blood relatives do.”

It is also possible to “reverse identify” people through their DNA. One study using software and internet searches, published in the journal Science in 2013, demonstrated that surnames can be recovered by matching the Y chromosome of an anonymous subject to genetic data from, say, a third cousin with a known surname. In 2008, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., published a similar study.

Genealogy sites outline their privacy protection policies – 23andMe and Ancestry.com, which weren’t involved in the capture of the Golden State Killer, both say they have strict privacy policies. 23andMe states: “We will not sell, lease or rent your individual-level information to any third party or to a third party for research purposes without your explicit consent.” Similarly, Ancestry.com’s policy states it doesn’t share genetic information with employers, insurance providers, or third-party marketers “without your consent.”

Consumers should expect to see the labels on display boards, handout menus and digital kiosks at chains with 20 or more locations. The change will be most evident at midsize and regional restaurants and grocery stores, since most of the country’s largest chains began displaying calorie counts after Congress passed the menu-labeling law in 2010.

Labeling has proved controversial since then. While public health groups say calorie labels are needed to nudge consumers toward more healthful choices — especially in an era when people dine out often — some in the food industry have fought the rules on the grounds that they’re expensive and difficult to implement.

Even as the regulations go live, critics are pushing a bill in Congress that would significantly weaken them. And last year, the Food and Drug Administration delayed the rules at the 11th hour over industry criticism, although the agency argues that mandatory calorie labeling actually benefits businesses.

… Studies show a reduction of anywhere from 30 to 50 calories a day, on average, for consumers who are eating out … over the course of a year, that could translate into three to five less pounds gained, just from the reductions that you achieved through providing more information on menu labels.

We’re allowing restaurants a multitude of ways to display calorie information in a way that aligns more closely with their current business models and doesn’t require them to undertake costly renovations.

… So for example, the pizza chains have a multitude of ways of complying, including putting an iPad in their store or just having a paper menu — which most of them have now. We’ve seen those menus from major pizza chains and they’re completely compliant.

From a business standpoint, I think the reason this regulation is pro-business is because it creates a level playing field for the disclosure of basic information. It allows restaurants to compete on the basis of providing more healthful, low-calorie options to consumers.

… If there isn’t a uniform standard for how this information is disclosed, and the presentation is different from restaurant to restaurant, then it becomes less valuable to consumers because they can’t make consistent comparisons.

why did FDA delay menu labeling in the first place? These rules were originally supposed to go into effect in 2017, but FDA extended the deadline at the last minute.–

There were a number of concerns raised by industry that we thought were reasonable, and we thought that if we took a little extra time we would have the opportunity to try to address ways they could more efficiently comply with the law. … So to the extent that we were able to provide a clearer avenue for restaurants to comply with the law, we felt it was worth taking the extra year. And that’s what we did. We got it done. …

What happens to a restaurant that doesn’t post calorie counts on May 7? —

… We’ll give them advice on how they can become compliant over the course of the first year. [Note: FDA is not enforcing penalties against noncompliant businesses until next year.] We will be doing inspections, and we’ll also be working with local partners and other third parties, such as the National Restaurant Association and other trade associations, to coordinate this.

… Let’s talk about what comes next in nutrition policy. A number of public health groups are saying their next policy push will be around kids’ meals in restaurants — banning soda as the default drink option and that kind of thing. Could you see FDA playing a role in that space? –

I don’t envision that. I think we see our role as providing information to consumers so they can make informed choices. As long as consumers are making informed choices, that’s our primary obligation. …

We’re going to be implementing a nutrition plan over the course of the next year, and a lot of the elements of that plan are geared toward providing additional ways that food producers can make health claims on product labels. [Note: If a food company wants to make a health claim linking their product to a specific disease or ailment — such as claiming that cranberry juice prevents urinary tract infections— FDA must approve it first.]…

If producers can’t say ‘my food is healthier, my food can help… reduce your risk of certain diseases,’ then they’re not going to invest in the technology and the research to formulate foods in ways that achieve those outcomes.

Twitter user Keziah, who is not Chinese, posted pictures of herself wearing a cheongsam, or qipao – a traditional Chinese dress – for her prom.

In a widely-shared response to the pictures, one Twitter user, Jeremy Lam, tweeted: “My culture is not your… prom dress”.

The original tweet, and Lam’s criticism, have attracted hundreds of thousands of likes, tens of thousands of retweets, and thousands more comments as supporters and critics clashed over the concept of cultural appropriation – the adoption of minority cultures, typically by dominant cultures. …

… Mr Lam explained on Twitter why he found the photos troubling. He said the qipao began as a formless gown for house cleaning and was turned into a symbol of female empowerment.

“In a time where Asian women were silenced they were able to create not only a piece of art but a symbol of activism,” he wrote.

“This piece of clothing embraced femininity, confidence and gender equality through its beautiful, eye-catching appearance. The style was then spread throughout Asia as a beautiful garment and sign of women’s liberation.

“I’m proud of my culture, including the extreme barriers marginalised people within that culture have had to overcome those obstacles. For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience is parallel to colonial ideology.”

MIKE: Having grown up in a culture that imitates and is imitated, I’m confused. I can understand there are boundaries, but where? What cultural “values” are rightfully avoided out of respect, and when does the idea of cultural appropriation become a form of victimhood?

When Irish dance became popularized by “River Dance,” the Irish were saying that this was Ireland’s cultural moment.

A heritage railway line that barred a group who dress as German soldiers for its annual World War 2 re-enactment says it is working on a new scenario.The North Yorkshire Moors Railway said the decision not to include the Das Reich group came in response to negative publicity in the press.

MIKE: I’m always a little concerned about guys who enjoy dressing up in Nazi Wehrmacht and SS uniforms for fun.

VULTURE CAPITALISM: Lampert and his ESL Hedge Fund have been sucking SEARS dry for over a decade. Now we appear to be in the end-game.

Lampert’s hedge fund disclosed Monday that it had sent a letter to the retailer on Friday offering to work out a deal to help the distressed company raise cash.

Any deal between Lampert and Sears would also deepen the reclusive executive’s financial entanglement with the retailer amid its decline. He has already orchestrated a series of deals in which he has gained control of the retailer’s most valuable real estate and other assets.

The extreme weather swings that Californians have experienced over the past six years — a historic drought followed by drenching winter storms that caused $100 million in damage to San Jose and wrecked the spillway at Oroville Dam — will become the norm over the coming generations, a new study has found.

Those types of extremes are not new, but because of climate change, they can be expected to occur more frequently, as hotter global temperatures and warming oceans are putting more water vapor into the air, concluded the study, which was published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

And perhaps most ominous, the odds are rising that a mega-storm — like the one that famously flooded California in 1862, forcing Leland Stanford to take a rowboat through the streets of Sacramento to his inauguration as governor — will strike again. Such a storm “is more likely than not” to hit the state at least once in the next 40 years and twice in the next 80, the study found. The 1862 event, the largest recorded flood in California history, saw 43 days of continuous rainfall that washed whole towns away and forced the state capital to be temporarily moved to San Francisco.

At about 10 pm on Sunday evening, a self-drivingUber struck and killed a woman crossing the street in Tempe, Arizona. The crash appears to be the first time a self-driving vehicle has killed someone—and could alter the course of a scantily regulated, poorly understood technology that has the power to save lives and create fortunes.

The Tempe Police Department reports the Volvo XC90 SUV was in autonomous mode when the crash occurred, though the car had a human safety driver behind the wheel to monitor the technology and retake control in the case of an emergency or imminent crash. The woman, Elaine Herzberg, was transported to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries. The police department will complete its full report later today.

Uber, Waymo, and other autonomous vehicle developers like Arizona not just for the sunny weather and calm conditions but for the near total lack of restrictions on how they test: Self-driving vehicles don’t need any sort of special permit, just a standard vehicle registration. And their operators don’t have to share any information about what they’re doing with the authorities.

Thus far, only California demands developers make public specific data on their operations, including descriptions of any crashes, how many miles they drive each year, and how often their human safety operators take control from the robot. Even those numbers are less than helpful in understanding the pace of their work or just how well these things really drive. The state will begin allowing the testing of totally driverless vehicles—without safety drivers for backup—on public roads next month.

…companies … await legislation that would put the federal government firmly in charge of all autonomous vehicle design, construction, and performance, and allow even more testing—as many as 100,000 vehicles per manufacturer—all over the country. The bill, called the Self Drive Act, passed in the House this fall. But the companion Senate bill, the AV Start Act, has been held up by a few senators who wonder whether the young technology needs more aggressive oversight.

… Tempe police report the woman was outside the crosswalk when she was hit and killed.

… human drivers kill just 1.16 people for every 100 million miles driven. Waymo and Uber and all the rest combined are nowhere near covering that kind of distance, and they’ve already killed one.

What is a “Populist”?

From Wikipedia: … a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against a privileged elite.[1] Critics of populism have described it as a political approach that seeks to disrupt the existing social order by solidifying and mobilizing the animosity of the “commoner” or “the people” against “privileged elites” and the “establishment”.[2] Populists can fall anywhere on the traditional left–right political spectrum of politics and often portray both bourgeois capitalists and socialist organizers as unfairly dominating the political sphere.[3]

Political parties and politicians[4] often use the terms “populist” and “populism” as pejoratives against their opponents. Such a view sees populism as demagogy, merely appearing to empathize with the public through rhetoric or unrealistic proposals in order to increase appeal across the political spectrum.[5]

1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially, often capitalized : a member of a U.S. political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies

Last month in Shanghai, Chinese venture capitalist Eric X. Li made a provocative suggestion. The United States, he said, was going through its own “Cultural Revolution.” …

Li said he saw several parallels between the violence and chaos in China decades ago and the animosity coursing through the United States today. In both cases, the countries turned inward, focusing more on defining the soul of their nations than on issues beyond their borders.

He said that both countries were also “torn apart by ideological struggles,” with kinships, friendships and business relationships being severed by political differences.

“Virtually all types of institutions, be it political, educational, or business, are exhausting their internal energy in dealing with contentious, and seemingly irreconcilable, differences in basic identities and values — what it means to be American,” he said in a subsequent email exchange. “In such an environment, identity trumps reason, ideology overwhelms politics, and moral convictions replace intellectual discourse.”

Apply anti-nepotism law to White House (It was WRITTEN for White House [Robert Kennedy serving with JFK])

All declared POTUS candidates must release at least 5 years tax returns and medical physical data. (LEGISLATE/AMENDMENT: for how many years)

Presidents may not self-pardon (AMENDMENT OR LEGISLATION: or pardon executive appointees?)

No “self-funding” of campaigns beyond legal donor limit.

Special counsel has power to indict president

ADD:

2/3 Senate vote to confirm SCOTUS appointment

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“The Orville”

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About Thinkwing Radio

Mike Honig is originally from Brooklyn, New York. He moved to Houston in September of 1977 and has been there ever since. Mike's interests are politics, history, science, science fiction (and reading generally), technology, and almost anything else. Mike has knowledge and experience in many diverse fields, sometimes from having worked in them, and sometimes from extensive reading or discussion about them. Mike's general knowledge makes him a favorite partner in Trivial Pursuit. He likes to say that about most things, he knows enough to be dangerous. Humility is a work-in-progress.